Forming habits at an early age to encourage healthy living and a healthy heart

Pilgrims School Healthy Heart Week: Monday 26th June to Friday 30th June

Aerobics every morning in the playground before school begins – that’s how we will be starting each day during our Healthy Heart Week.  Children, staff and their parents will try to keep up with Mrs Taylor, our energetic Pre School Manager; star jumps, skipping, running on the spot – all helping to get the day started in a fun and healthy way.

Some of the other planned activities will include the ‘Daily Mile’ session on Monday 26 June.

The Daily Mile is an initiative to improve the physical, emotional and social health and wellbeing of our children – regardless of age.  It is a simple but effective concept, which any primary school can implement and which many already have. It takes about 15 minutes and its impact can be transformational, improving not only children’s’ fitness, but also their concentration levels, mood, behaviour and general wellbeing.  Some schools have reported better sleep amongst children who undertake the daily mile as part of their school day. The week of activities will also end with a Daily Mile for all staff and children.

The children will also be encouraged to walk to school, if possible, or to ride their bike/scooter.  We are located next to Bedford Park and have our very own access gate so it’s a perfect reason to leave the car at home and enjoy a stroll/ride/run through the park.

At the end of our Healthy Heart Week, we will be holding our annual Sports Day.  It’s always an event that children get really enthusiastic about and we shared some views on the competitive spirit of sports day in our blog last June.  We encourage parents to stay for the afternoon to cheer the children on and enjoy their picnics in the Pilgrims garden.

Learning how to stay healthy doesn’t need to be boring and our Healthy Heart Week will demonstrate that to our littlest children.  Mrs Bhogal and her catering team will also have special menus throughout the week, tempting the children to try some healthier snacks and foods they may not have tasted before.  It’s going to be all about forming habits at an early age to encourage healthy living and a healthy heart.

Some facts from the British Heart Foundation:

• Groundbreaking studies by British Heart Foundation researchers have greatly advanced our understanding of how maternal nutrition and lifestyle during pregnancy can affect a child’s long-term health.
• It’s estimated that nearly 30 per cent of children in the UK are overweight or obese.
• Only a quarter of UK adults and one in five children consume the recommended minimum five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.
• Cardiovascular (heart and circulatory) disease causes more than a quarter (26 per cent) of all deaths in the UK; that’s nearly 160,000 deaths each year – an average of 435 people each day or one death every three minutes
• There are around 7 million people living with cardiovascular disease in the UK: 3.5 million men and 3.5 million women.